Choreographer added new moves for old favorite Production is a few steps from usual Oklahoma! By Wesley Young for the JOURNAL (Carolina)

The dancing feet will tell the story when the Kernersville Little Theatre's production of Oklahoma! makes its debut this evening at the Kernersville Elementary School auditorium.

One of the challenges of staging a familiar show is breathing new life into it. Choreographer Ashley Hyers says she approached that job by arranging the dance movements to better tell the story even when the actors' mouths are closed.

Each character in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical has a distinct personality, Hyers said. The task was to find the right moves that revealed each character.

Hyers found some of her inspiration by seeing how choreographer Susan Stroman transformed the musical when it was revived in London in 1998. Gone were the more traditional ballet moves of Agnes DeMille.

There is enough youthful energy in the crowd-pleasing production of "Oklahoma!" to levitate the roof off the Porthouse Theatre on the grounds of Blossom Music Center. <a href=http://www.cleveland.com/artsandevents/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1059471280151034.xml target=_blank>more</a>

Jackman stars as Curly in the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, which was filmed during his run in the musical in London. Directed by Trevor Nunn (news) and choreographed by Susan Stroman, the Royal National Theatre production of Oklahoma! won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical as well as the Best Musical Evening Standard and Critics Circle awards.

If you know Hugh Jackman only for his signature film role as Wolverine in the ``X-Men'' movies, you may have a hard time envisioning him as a song and dance man. <a href=http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/7310983.htm target=_blank>more</a>

A beautiful mornin' dawns again Dec. 16 when the new non-Equity national tour of Oklahoma!, inspired by the Royal National Theatre-Cameron Mackintosh production seen in London and on Broadway, launches at the Buell Theatre in Denver.

The production is directed by Fred Hanson and choreographed by Ginger Thatcher, who adapt producer Mackintosh's productions created by Trevor Nunn and Susan Stroman. TV audiences have been getting a taste of the show with airings of the London staging on PBS in recent weeks. Hugh Jackman starred in the London run.

This joyous 'Oklahoma!' more than OK By WENDELL BROCK for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

At the box social that is American musical theater, Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" is always a choice bid. Whether sealed in burp-able plastic and served up at high schools or gussied up in a crystal dish for the likes of London's posh Royal National Theatre, "Oklahoma!" is an infinitely recyclable rumination on matters of the heart -- and the American heartland.

The atmosphere in this country at the moment may be quite different from either 1907 or 1943, but classics have a way of carving out their own niche in an audience's psyche. And the production of "Oklahoma!" that opened Tuesday night at the Auditorium certainly seemed to strike a chord.

Despite its reputation as the consummate celebration of heartland values, "Oklahoma!" actually is the most brilliant dissection of nationalist unease, sexual confusion and communal insecurity ever to be penned for the American musical theater.

And this NETWorks production, decried in some professional quarters for its nonunion status, is an example of what can be accomplished outside the industry establishment when conditions are right. The lively, youthful ensemble tackles both Rodgers' dynamic vocal lines and Stroman's vigorous dance routines with confidence and strength.

The current U.S. tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Oklahoma!, which opened in Dallas on Tuesday, is best analogized in the song All er Nothin'. <a href=http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/10579480.htm?1c target=_blank>more</a>

Full of strangers' eyes meeting across a crowded room, and of knowing that you will see them again and again, "Some Enchanted Evening" is the kind of show tune that can steam up the memory banks fast. <a href=http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/10772608.htm target=_blank>more</a>

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